The Pacific Post

  Week 50 Recording Artists and Light the World 28 July 2025 Hello all! How are you enjoying your 100 degree weather? Just a little jealous. That sounds heavenly. We are cold 40-50s and rainy almost everyday. It's feels damp and windy most days. The interesting thing is my hair isn't frizzy like California. I'm so grateful, but I don't understand it. It's rainy and we are by the ocean but it doesn't smell/feel like a salty ocean.  It is a small discomfort to enjoy the beauty all around. We had a great week this week! Merry Christmas! July is the month that we start Light the World "Experience the Light". This is our ideation meeting for Light the World. Jeremey is the one at the boards. He is the project manager for this campaign. (We love working with Jeremy. He invited us to his home for Sunday dinner 2 weeks ago with his wife and 2 daughters. Love them.) We threw everything up on the board, small ideas and big ideas. Have noticed after a suggestion ...

 Week 49 Island of Paradise 19 July 2025 There are some beautiful places in our mission.  As most of you know, my brother K.C. and his wife Judy are serving at the same time and place that we serve.   We promised each other that we would take a trip prior to them going home and they only have 7 weeks left, so we decided to go to Aitutaki in the Cook Islands for a couple of days.   With the permission of the mission president, we we able to find the time to visit paradise.  Aitutaki is one of Heavenly Fathers most beautiful creations. Getting to the Aitutaki is a bit of an adventure. This was the outdoor check-in counter. This was our boarding pass after we gave them our name. Nothing else, no ID, no passport, nothing, just a name and then they print this for your boarding pass. Luggage collection on a tiny truck. The best way to explore the island is by scooter.  Renting the scooter was an experience. No helmets or waiver. I'm glad Kelly was a goo...

  Week 48 Hello Cuz!! 13 July 2025 It has been a great week! I'm amazed how we fill our time here. Most weeks begin without an idea of where we will be needed or used, and then as the week passes it materialize into something directed, intentional, and meaningful. This week we sat in meetings that try to look at the bigger picture of the church in regards to budgeting, what is news, giving machines, how to get visas for waiting missionaries, recording the new hymns in other languages, explainer articles that will interest friends of the church, and even social media trends. This is all so good for our brains. It keeps us young. I'm always wondering what would my children think about this or want for their families. What do young adults need. You would be surprised at how the church caters to young adults. (That is a whole different topic.).  One other project our team is working on is getting the Church handbook of instruction recorded for Papua New Guinea. The majority of the...

  Week 47 107 Baptisms, 34 Ordinations, 40 New Missionaries and 1 New Stake 6 July 2025 The pictures below happened a couple of weeks ago in Papua New Guinea which is in the Pacific Area. We would like to tell you that we covered this event but it was done by another missionary. It is so amazing we had to mention it. The Church growth rate in PNG is amazingly high.  In fact, it is very difficult to support and maintain the growth of the Church because of the challenges it creates. The same weekend the new stake was created, they had 107 baptisms,  40 prospective missionaries completed mission papers,  and 37 brethren received the Priesthood. The new Stake doesn't have a building to meet in. Most chapels in PNG meet in "bush chapels".   To form a baptismal font, they built a dam across the river so they could perform the baptisms.   This is my hard-working, fun-loving, fast-accomplishing, slow-to-anger, never-tiring companion, Elder Shaw (Kelly: I ...

 Week 46 Baptism and Sea Monsters! 29 June 2026 I don't think we showed you our new office. We moved from the 3rd floor offices to the building right next door.  The Area is expanding with many new employees. They now lease an additional floor in the building next door.  If is very nice and we have more room, but I miss working by the missionaries. Typical lunch break. Generally the senior missionaries find each other to chat and enjoy a lunch together.    No one told us how hard it would be to say goodbye to fellow missionary friends. They come and then they go. Goodbye Elder and Sister Hillier!  They are good people and did a fantastic job as the executive secretary and with the temple patron fund.  We hope to track them down when we are done and attend a BYU game together.  We share the same passion for BYU. This view caught me off guard on our evening beach walk. Sea Monster with a sweet tooth.:) Ministering comes in all shapes and sizes. We t...

 Week 45 Another Week Flies By 22 June 2025 Hello Everyone! It's hard to believe that it is a new week. Last week went extremely fast. This picture gives you a feel for a day in the life of an office missionary. Kelly feels like there are too many meeting, but he cannot argue about this one. This was a new idea. It's called a 10 minute stand up meeting. Candace spontaneously called a stand up meeting first thing Monday morning. Everyone reported what he/she is working on that day. It was actually pretty interesting and helpful.  The men that are our desk buddies are Duschon and Tetoki. They are amazingly talented. They work on editing reels all day. It's interesting to watch them. I caught Duschon singing "Bless Your Beautiful Hide" from 7 Brides. He said it is his favorite movie. We are besties now. Our emphasis this week was doing research to better understand the reputation of the church in the Pacific. Kelly and I were trained on software called Brandwatch. It...